How to sell Print on demand phone cases on Shopify

Phone cases are one of the best products to start with if you’re building a print on demand business on Shopify. They’re affordable to produce, easy to design for, and there’s a massive, continuously growing market of people who want something that reflects their personality rather than a generic case from a big-box store.

We’ve been fulfilling custom phone cases for over 10 years at Printeers. In that time, we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. This guide walks you through exactly how to get started, from setting up your Shopify store to your first sale.

Before we get into the how, it’s worth understanding why phone cases work so well for print on demand sellers.

The numbers tell the story. The global phone case market was valued at over $25 billion in 2024 and is projected to nearly double by 2033, growing steadily as smartphone adoption continues to rise worldwide. Over 1.2 billion phone cases were sold globally in 2024 alone. And importantly for POD sellers, 38% of younger buyers prefer custom-designed cases, and 56% say aesthetics are their primary reason for buying one. People don’t just want protection. They want something that reflects who they are.

The profit margins are solid too. A custom phone case typically sells for €20-49, while production and fulfilment costs are well below that. That leaves room for a healthy margin without having to sell huge volumes.

If you don’t have a Shopify store yet, start there. Shopify is the easiest platform to connect with print on demand apps, and it handles payments, order management, and customer communication out of the box.

Go to shopify.com, choose a plan, and pick a clean theme that puts your products front and centre. You don’t need anything fancy to start. A simple, fast-loading theme works better than something overly designed.

Once your store is live, install the Printeers app from the Shopify App Store. It’s free to install and connects your store directly to our fulfilment infrastructure.

After installing, create your free Printeers account. You’ll immediately have access to our full catalogue of phone cases, iPad cases, MacBook cases, AirPods cases, and more, all produced white-label, meaning your branding, not ours, is what your customers see.

One of the first decisions you’ll make is which product ranges you want to offer. Don’t start with all of them. Start with the Soft case and Tough Case first for example. There is no need to offer everything at the start, your designs make the difference.

Our app makes sure that your product range stays up to date. New models are added automatically when you use our app. You only have to care about creating new designs.

The Printeers catalogue is updated regularly as new phone models are released, so you won’t have to worry about falling behind.

This is where your store becomes yours. The design is everything in this business. It’s what makes someone stop scrolling and buy.

You don’t need to be a professional designer. Tools like Canva, Adobe Express, or even AI image generators make it easy to create compelling designs without design experience. What matters is that your designs speak to a specific audience.

The most successful POD phone case stores are niche stores. Instead of selling generic designs to everyone, they sell specific designs to a passionate group of people: dog lovers, surfers, nurses, gaming fans, plant parents. The more specific your niche, the less competition and the more loyal your customers.

A few practical tips:
– Design at the correct resolution (at least 300 DPI) to ensure sharp print quality
– You only have to create one design for each product range as long as you follow our guidelines
– Test your designs by ordering a sample before you start selling

Once your designs are ready, you can create products in the Printeers Dashboard. Here you can automatically generate product listings with mockup images so you don’t need a photo studio or physical samples to launch. The app pushes the products to your store.

Very soon, Printeers will roll out photorealistic 3D rendering for all products, making your product images look even more professional without any extra effort on your end.

For each product, make sure to:
– Write a clear, specific product title (e.g. “Custom Floral iPhone 15 Case” rather than just “Phone Case”)
– Write a product description that explains what makes your design special and mentions the materials and print quality
– Price your products at a level that covers your costs and leaves a comfortable margin. Usually it works to sell 2 or 3 different products at different price points.

Once your store is live and an order comes in, Printeers handles everything automatically. The order is sent to our production facility, printed, quality checked, packed, and shipped directly to your customer, white-label, with no Printeers branding on the package.

We ship from both Europe and the US, which means fast delivery times for customers in both markets without customs complications.

You don’t need to touch a single product, manage inventory, or worry about shipping logistics. That’s the point of print on demand.

Having a great store isn’t enough if nobody finds it. The most important first step is to know where your niche is and target it. Once you know your audience, you can reach them consistently across different channels.

When your first sales come in it’s time to set up your branding. Three tips to make sure that customers experience your brand through the whole process:

1. Include your brand name in your design if possible. You’ve created the design and own the brand. Your customers carry their phone everywhere, so the product itself is the best and a free opportunity for you to spread your brand.

2. Set up a branded tracking page. This is a free feature of Printeers which makes you more professional straight away.

3. Create custom packaging or a compliment card. This is recommended when your brand becomes more established. For a small fee you can have us add brand items or custom inner and outer packaging to shipments.

There are several print on demand apps on the Shopify App Store. Here’s why Printeers makes sense specifically for device accessories:

We’ve specialised in phone cases and device accessories for over 10 years. That means you can build on the best print quality, broadest range, and quickest time-to-market for new models. Phone cases, MacBook cases, iPad cases, AirPods cases, it’s all in one place under the same account.

And because we ship from both Europe and the US, your customers get fast delivery regardless of where they are.

Register for a free account and receive € 25,- in free credits.

Install the Printeers app on your Shopify store. Your first products can be live within a day.